Chávez celebration
Hot off the press
BVC now Pac-7
Story on the 2014 César Chávez Awards Recognition event — page 3
LMC Student gets cartoon strip published in the Brentwood Press — page 4
Update on shake-ups in the conference and next season’s schedule — page 5
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F.Y.I. Important Dates April is Autism Awareness Month April 7
Begin priority registration for EOPS, DSPS, qualified foster youth, CalWorks
April 8
Special registration for DSPS note takers, early graduation applicants, qualified athletes
April 23
Begin registration for continuing students by appointment
2014 summer schedule out Check out the 2014 schedule of classes for this summer online at losmedanos.edu/schedule
Career fair upcoming The Transfer Academy is hosting an Informational Career Fair Thursday, April 10, 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in L-109. Some career disciplines that will be topics on the agenda are health care, business, journalism, psychology, history and technology. Free refreshments will be provided. Contact Ashley Adams at aadams@losmedanos. edu for more information.
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L M C E X P E R I E N C E . C O M
Academy of excellence Teaches life skills for school success
Teachers from various Bay Area schools participate in an activity during the Day of ACE event last Friday.
attractive than college and giving up due to issues centered Teachers, students and staff around fear and anxiety and from throughout the Bay Area a feeling as though they are Photo by Cathie Lawrence came together Friday, March not “college material.” The ACE Program will 28 as Los Medanos College held A Day of ACE (Academy attempt to support students in their endeavors all the way of College Excellence). ACE is a full-time program through their college career. that helps underprepared com- It will attempt to “light the fire munity college students devel- for learning” with the student op the necessary academic while monitoring progress, motivating qualifications the student, and skills to dealing with succeed in behavior both college and helping and in life. the student To ingratithrough life ate the group problems of about 30 as they go people, LMC through their Math Profesacademic casor and ACE reer. Faculty MemAfter mulber Tue Rust titudes of and Berkeley slides that City College continued to ACE Faculty look at the Member EsACE Prother Suarez Photo by Cathie Lawrence gram and presented ACE faculty member how it goes slides showabout helping the vari- Esther Suarez times the ing students, ous statistics group during an activity. the group did the program is attempting to turn around. an experimental activity on The stats include evidence bio-reaction. Bio-reaction is the immedithat bachelor degree attainment by the age of 24 for high- ate response the human body er income students continues and mind have in reaction to to rise over 80 percent while an event using one of the four lower income students hover responses; fight, flight, freeze and appease. The goal of the around 10 percent. The percentage gap is due to activity was to understand the a number of reasons, as they reasons why a student would take into account the variety of react differently to potentially struggles and issues students challenging situations in their are going through individually, life and how they may not have such as having fragmented much actual control in their families and having unhealthy responses to diversity. Rust paralleled the example living situations. Rust and Suarez went over of a student failing a test and the three main root problems feeling like they are going to Photo by Irvin Trigueros of underprepared students; “die” because of their failure Life problems becoming when, in fact, that is not true. Math Instructor and ACE faculty member Tue Rust fields an answer from Janelle overwhelming, life being more See ACE, page 6 Tillotson during the Day of ACE event Friday, March 28 in room L-109. By BRENDAN CROSS
bcross@lmcexperience.com
Debaters place among top at tourney Three straight high finishes at nationals By SUZZANNE SPERRY
ssperry@lmcexperience.com
Deadline for STEM nearing
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The Los Medanos College Debate Team took third place at the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championship Tournament in Flagstaff, Arizona at Northern Arizona University over spring break. Assistant Professor of Communications Kasey Gardner said, “I’m very proud of our short but very successful history at LMC Debate. Over the three years the program has existed, we’ve taken third, second and third again respectively at nationals in our community college division.
Truly great work from our students and coaching staff including Dr. Dave Zimny and Professor Marie Arcidiacono.” The debate teams were issued their topics 20 minutes before the competition. LMC had four wins and four losses. The LMC Debate Team included eight students total, each of whom were paired with a partner. “During a debate, I remember me and my partner, Kevin Orozco, were up against a university team. There is this term called spreading where a team speaks their point really fast. My partner and I had to say ‘clear’ several times which makes the other team slow down and clarify their speech. At this point we knew we lost so we decided to go out with a bang and when it was my partner’s turn to speak he spoke his speech in Spanish. Everyone just stopped writing,” said debate team member
“I’m very proud of our short but very successful history at LMC Debate.” — Kasey Gardner
Miguel Mauricio. “In a way, it solidified us as a team because it showed we had good strategies too, despite coming from a community college. Our win was a collective effort from all involved, our coaches, the team members and the prep work everyone put into it,” he added. Assistant Debate Coach Marie Arcidiacono said, “The 2014 National Parliamentary Debate See TOP, page 6
5-year plan nearly ready
The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program provides scholarships for LMC students who are majoring in STEM fields. Scholars will receive between $3,000-$5,000 each year based on need. To apply, go to losmedanos.edu/stem/scholars. asp. The application deadline is April 7.
Final meeting aids in solving questions By BRENDAN CROSS
bcross@lmcexperience.com
Photo by Irvin Trigueros
Interim Dean of Student Services David Belman and Math Professor Erich Holtmann discuss questions raised during the third and final strategic meeting.
The third and final strategic planning meeting Friday, March 28 saw a mix of about 30 students, faculty and staff hash out the keys to developing a 5-year plan for Los Medanos College. Despite the lower than expected turnout, those who did attend were able to bounce ideas off of each other, as well
as Senior Dean of Research and Planning Greg Stoup for the District, who led the event. To kick things off, some statistics were shown that relayed the fact that LMC is in good shape in terms of meeting prior goals. The number of students for the 2012-13 school year who transferred to either a UC or CSU was 381, while the goal number was set at 362. Between the years of 2007 and 2011, the percent of students who completed developmental ed math has risen from 32 percent to 38.5 percent while the percent for developmental ed English
also raised from 58.8 percent to 64.8 percent. Afterward, the four different tables discussed questions raised by Stoup. In the first discussion, the questions asked were why, in the second district meeting, was it was brought up that LMC suffered from an inaccurate and outdated image as well as why the perception is that LMC’s first goal is to prepare students to work rather than to transfer. The overall perception of the group on that topic was that the image relates to members of the community See PLAN, page 6